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Websleuths News

Join Websleuths Radio for the final discussion of THE KILLING SEASON
with Josh Zemam, Rachel Mills and special guests including Bob Kolker author of Lost Girls

Details of DisappearanceGibson was last seen in Greensboro, North Carolina on December 7, 1990. She left her home in the 2700 block of Liberty Road to walk up the street for a few minutes, and never returned. Gibson has never been heard from again. All of her personal belongings, including her clothing and makeup, were left behind. Gibson's mother reported her missing on four other occasions prior to her December 1990 disappearance. She was always found or returned home voluntarily within a few days, however; she had usually run away to be with her adult boyfriend, whom she was close to. Gibson's family checked her boyfriend's residence numerous times after her December 1990 disappearance, but she was never there. There were several possible sightings of Gibson in the local area in the months after her disappearance, but none of them were confirmed. There has been no activity on Gibson's Social Security number and she has also not received a driver's license or state identification card under her own name since her disappearance. She was a student at Dudley Open School in 1990. Her case remains unsolved.

Amy has DNA entered according to NamUs, as does Jane Doe. She should be an automatic comparison but I'm still hesitant to state that as an absolute without knowing which kind of DNA each woman has entered. I believe if Jane has both types, and Amy only has a single type, it still will trigger a potential match, just not a positive match. https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/show/2531

I just have to wonder about the body that was found in Hillsborough in September 1990. I know it was a few months before Danielle supposedly disappeared, but given that the missing persons report wasn't accepted right away, is it possible that the dates got confused in the report? Danielle is not listed in namus as a rule-out for this UID and that exit in Hillsborough is not far down I-40/85 from Greensboro. Just seems like such a coincidence that she disappeared the same year that this UID was found, and the UID sketch looks a lot like Danielle's age progression, which leads me to believe that the underlying bone structure must have been similar.

A framed, 16-by-24-inch drawing of a teen-age girl with bunnies on her sweatshirt still leans against the wall in investigator Bobby Collins' office, though it's been three years since the body was found.
Collins, a lieutenant in the Orange County Sheriff's Department, thinks he may have found her killer, but he can't prove it. And he still doesn't know the girl's name. But somebody does.
Collins thinks the girl was a hitchhiker, maybe a runaway. She was probably from a well-off family, judging from her expensive dental work and nice clothes. She was white, between 15 and 19 years old, and about 5 feet 3 inches tall with frosted brown hair. On the last day of her life, she was wearing anklet socks, a gold ring and twisted gold bracelet, and a pink sweatshirt with three bunnies on the front. -- two on bicycles and one on a unicycle.
A road crew found her half-nude body early on the morning of Sept. 19, 1990 off I-40 in Orange County. Someone had molested her, strangled her and tossed her body down a 15-foot embankment off I-40, just east of the New Hope Church Road exit in Orange County. Investigators believe the girl was killed about a week before her body was found. It was around that time, in mid-September, when a young girl resembling the dead teen was seen at the Archdale Truck Stop on I-85, about 25 miles west of Hillsborough.
Keith Allen Brown -- the man Collins believes killed the girl -- was to stand trial in another death but reportedly hanged himself in his jail cell before it went to court.
The truck stop was also known to Keith Allen Brown, the man Collins believes killed the girl. Brown was to stand trial in the death of a Burlington woman, but he reportedly hanged himself in his jail cell before that case went to court.
Though the search for the killer may have reached a dead end, the lieutenant says his office will never give up trying to identify the girl.
``Any time something pops up, I check it out,'' Collins said. ``I run it down until there's just nowhere else to go with it.''

Below is some information about her disappearance from an article (snipped to avoid violating copyright) in the Greensboro Record on December 5, 1992. Apparently it was very strongly suspected that she was voluntarily missing (I think that was misguided, but hindsight is 20/20). I wonder if the boyfriend was a suspect.

She didn't take any clothes. She didn't take any makeup. She didn't take any mementos. The then 15-year-old vanished Dec. 4, 1990, and her family hasn't heard from her since.

It was not the first time Amy left home. Her mother, Cathy Austin, had reported the teenager missing four other times. But each time, Amy was found or came back within a couple days.

This time, she left no trace, baffling Greensboro police.

<snip>

The family first thought Amy had run away to be with her boyfriend, who was 20 and had his own apartment in Greensboro.

``We went by there at two or three in the morning, trying to catch her there,'' Gibson said. ``We'd go storming in every night during the first two weeks. He was the logical choice because they stuck together like glue.''

But Amy was never there.

<snip>

``I rode the streets everywhere,'' Austin said. ''I had found her before and it didn't make sense that I couldn't find her again. For all we know, she left here and got abducted.''

<snip>

Meanwhile, [Detective Mike] Loy did his part. He entered Amy into the National Crime Information Center. If she is pulled over while driving a car or questioned by police and is checked out, she'll come up as missing. He's periodically run Amy's Social Security number through the IRS to see if she's working anywhere. Department of motor vehicle records were scanned to see if Amy has gotten a license or any other type of identification. All efforts led to naught.

``I don't know what's happened, but nothing under her name is showing,'' Loy said. ``I did try Danielle Gibson or Austin. I tried to run it different ways and tried to come to something close to her date of birth. ... But nothing panned out.''

<snip>

``All we have to hold onto is the hearsay we have heard: That she's been sighted here and there,'' said her aunt, Trisha Martin. ``Because otherwise all we have to believe is that she is dead somewhere.''

<snip>

Amy was close to her family - her sister and her now 15-year-old brother, Jeremy, her grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins. She was the kind of person who kept a little book with everyone's phone number, her sister said.

I just have to wonder about the body that was found in Hillsborough in September 1990. I know it was a few months before Danielle supposedly disappeared, but given that the missing persons report wasn't accepted right away, is it possible that the dates got confused in the report? Danielle is not listed in namus as a rule-out for this UID and that exit in Hillsborough is not far down I-40/85 from Greensboro. Just seems like such a coincidence that she disappeared the same year that this UID was found, and the UID sketch looks a lot like Danielle's age progression, which leads me to believe that the underlying bone structure must have been similar.

Investigators estimate that the UID is between 15 and 25 years old. She was wearing a shirt with bunnies on it, which suggests to me that she was closer to 15 than 25.

I see Amy hasn't been excluded. .I know the dates SEEM wrong, but I wonder if she had been missing for longer than what the parents stated. She had run off before but had been found quickly in those cases. Maybe the parents put off reporting her because they figured it would turn out the same as before? Has anyone suggested this this UID to LE?

It's been 25 years since Amy Gibson disappeared and Greensboro Police are still searching for her.

"We have a child that’s gone missing and has not returned home and we want to bring that closure," Corporal Mike Matthews said with the police department. Matthews took over the case a few years ago when the other detective retired.

The last time anyone saw Amy Gibson was on December 7, 1990, in Greensboro. Investigators say she walked up the street from her house that day, and no one has seen or heard from her since then. Gibson was 15 years old at the time.

“A 15-year-old maybe just wants to leave home one day and take a walk, that’s not necessarily a runaway. That’s, they’re just going to take a walk and unfortunately, Amy Gibson did not come home," Matthews said. He said during his investigation he learned Amy had runaway before, liked to hang out at the mall and spend time with her friends.

Okay, let me preface this by saying that I am married to one of Amy's cousins and know her mother and siblings well. Her mother did not put off reporting Amy missing. While I don't know for certain, it's entirely plausible that she was walking to a nearby gas station, or to a neighborhood friend's house. I personally believe Amy is dead, but I don't know that for 100% obviously. I do know that she and a neighbor girl were fighting and the night before Amy vanished, she had snuck into the other girl's bedroom while she was asleep and cut off all her hair. This girl is/was Lumbee Indian and had several siblings who could've been involved in her murder. Amy's mother has received anonymous phone calls saying Amy is in the lake close to the back of her house. Amy's mom lives in the same house, she still puts out a stocking for her every Christmas. Wherever Amy is, dead or alive, I hope she's found one day to give her family the closure they need and deserve.

Okay, let me preface this by saying that I am married to one of Amy's cousins and know her mother and siblings well. Her mother did not put off reporting Amy missing. While I don't know for certain, it's entirely plausible that she was walking to a nearby gas station, or to a neighborhood friend's house. I personally believe Amy is dead, but I don't know that for 100% obviously. I do know that she and a neighbor girl were fighting and the night before Amy vanished, she had snuck into the other girl's bedroom while she was asleep and cut off all her hair. This girl is/was Lumbee Indian and had several siblings who could've been involved in her murder. Amy's mother has received anonymous phone calls saying Amy is in the lake close to the back of her house. Amy's mom lives in the same house, she still puts out a stocking for her every Christmas. Wherever Amy is, dead or alive, I hope she's found one day to give her family the closure they need and deserve.

Welcome Tedophile!! Thanks for your post.

Has her family ruled out, in their own minds, the girl (listed as being between 15 and 25) who was found down I-40 in Hillsborough? As I've said above, the body was found a few months before the date we are given for Amy's disappearance, but I have always wondered if there was a mix-up in one report or the other. It just seems too closeby and other than the dates too good a match not to at least give it a good look. Of course, it's possible that it's been given a very close look and it's been determined not to be a match. What a sad story. I'm so sorry for her family -- it must be so hard not knowing.

Okay, let me preface this by saying that I am married to one of Amy's cousins and know her mother and siblings well. Her mother did not put off reporting Amy missing. While I don't know for certain, it's entirely plausible that she was walking to a nearby gas station, or to a neighborhood friend's house. I personally believe Amy is dead, but I don't know that for 100% obviously. I do know that she and a neighbor girl were fighting and the night before Amy vanished, she had snuck into the other girl's bedroom while she was asleep and cut off all her hair. This girl is/was Lumbee Indian and had several siblings who could've been involved in her murder. Amy's mother has received anonymous phone calls saying Amy is in the lake close to the back of her house. Amy's mom lives in the same house, she still puts out a stocking for her every Christmas. Wherever Amy is, dead or alive, I hope she's found one day to give her family the closure they need and deserve.

Was the lake behind her mother's house ever checked? It seems the answer would be yes, however, I had to ask?

Did the police ever get any answers or feelings from the siblings or the girl who got her hair cut off? That definitely would be the first place ti look and be a motive.

I am sure the heartbreak for all these years has taken a toll on the whole family. My heart goes out to each of you.